The Sword's Oratoria
by firehelm
Summary: Orario is home to the only dungeon in the world. Thus it could be called the center of the world, figuratively, but how much chaos would the appearance of a powerful unknown bring upon the rowdy, adventurous city? How much change would that one cause? It's unknown at this moment, but the past, present, and future of his story is one to look out for.


_**A/N**_

 _This story was inspired by a random thought that "Bell wants to be a hero and Shirou wants to be a hero...uhhhh"_

 _I thought, what if Shirou was Bell? That thought then opened up the floodgates of the hell that is called overactive imagination and voila this story idea was born. Damn muse._

 _._

 _I was like "hey, why not just go with this idea." There are so many similarities between the two so, in this story, **Shirou IS Bell.**_

 _Well ok, this is obviously not going to be Heavens Feel Shirou since he has no archer-arm. Also, I won't exactly take a specific route, more like a mix of any and all. My Shirou's ideals will "evolve" and be revealed as the story progresses. The reason for his sudden appearance in the story? Just read and find out lol. It'll be revealed...eventually._

 _._

* * *

 **Prologue: Rumors of the Sword**

Let it be known that Aiz Wallenstein wasn't surprised by just anything. Being both the ace of the [Loki Familia] as well as the favorite of Loki herself, the [Sword Princess] had experiences with the unexpected, ranging from surprising circumstances, events, and ambushes to downright jaw dropping events that some would would believe to be falsities unless one's own eyes laid upon the evidence. Yet, despite all of Wallenstein's stoicism, she couldn't help but freeze for just a moment at the sight before her.

Aiz examined the room that had crystalline panes covering all that the eyes could see. She stood at the opening of a corridor of stairs that led into a clearing in the center of a colossal cavity in the dungeon. This area was the floor of the Second Floor Boss, or Monster Rex, on the 37th floor. The surroundings were reputed to be nigh indestructible except for the most powerful of blows, and even those blows could only chip the walls and ground. The 37th floor was vastly different from the floors above it. On the 37th, the walls, ceilings, and ground were colored a pure white, which granted it its name: the [White Palace]. The entire floor was home to a massive labyrinth that winded to who knows where and no one had managed to complete a full map of the floor due to the floor's significant size.

The surroundings moved. Not too fast as to make progressing through the maze extremely difficult, yet not too slow for years to pass to even begin to see a difference. This was something unique to the dungeon as a whole and not specific to any one floor. No matter what type of damage was done to it, the floors could and would repair themselves over time as if the dungeon was "alive" and was healing its wounds.

But even so, the impossibly hard and somewhat "alive" walls of this floor were only a minor interest compared to the true peculiarity that littered the floor of this landscape.

Aiz was not surprised that there were deep holes, jagged lines, and horrific gouges in the crystalline material that made up the surroundings. She wasn't too startled at the giant sized holes that had blown through several of the walls of the maze, no matter how impossibly difficult doing so should've been. Nor was she surprised when the dungeon did NOT move to repair itself. Actually, upon closer inspection it wasn't that the automatic repair had stopped, it had just slowed immensely.

Nevertheless, she wasn't the type easily shaken by such comparatively mundane reasons.

What shocked her was much simpler.

It's because in front of her, was a...

...Graveyard of swords.

* * *

The [Loki Familia], a top class combat Familia, knew the peculiarities of this floor as well as the danger that accompanied all the traps and beasts found here, yet there was nary a sound that could be heard except for the dull thuds of feet marching on stone and the clanks of armor as they jangled on the various members of this expedition.

There were no roars of beasts in the distance, nor were there any ambushes by creatures of the dungeon as they walked through the narrow corridor that connected the 38th floor to the 37th. Aiz and several other vanguard members had been sent ahead to scout the boss floor, but even despite their fighting prowess, floors down this deep and of this caliber were incredibly intimidating for adventurers. The Rex floor was more so intimidating than any other floors near it. New adventurers would find it incredibly ominous, and it just so happens that this was the first expedition for almost half the group.

Normally, the growls and rumbles of creatures hidden in shadowy corners of the dungeon were enough to enerve most adventurers and raise both tension and paranoia to its peaks, but the situation at hand was far more eerie.

Silence. Absolute silence commanded the atmosphere. This total absence of any sound from beasts on this floor did not detract from the terrible feeling that the shadows in the distance emanated. No. It was more like the aura was, instead, far more intense. It almost made several adventurers commit suicide to free themselves from the oppression.

Although they were stopped by the leaders of the expedition before anything tragic occurred, those several adventurers couldn't help but lose their lunch on the pristine, white floors.

This party was sorely unprepared for this situation. Normally the [Loki Familia] would not toss precaution out the window and head deeper than what they were prepared for, but due to the unexpected skill and team synergy of the new Second Class recruits, they had finished the normal curriculum—which was a mere 20 floors—in record time. It was then at the insistence by almost all the new members that they head deeper. At first the leaders objected and prepared to return, however, several powerful members of the expedition from another Familia agreed and produced reasoning worth pondering over. Convinced because of the reputation of the [Sword Princess] and many others experienced and famous names, they decided that it was not impossible for the recruits to have a taste of the lower floors. They had easily managed to reach the 25th floor, when an unstable cliff formation broke off, taking them along with it. It was extremely unfortunate for the expedition, as they had fallen down the cliffside more than a dozen floors. Had it not been for a natural (or not) rock formation that resembled a slide at the bottom of the fall, the [Loki Familia] would be down a few core members... they shivered at the thought.

They had fallen far: all the way to the 38th floor. The group had landed smack dab in the center of a large chasm that, fortunately, had no monsters and debated what course of action was next.

One, they could rest for the night here, trading off the night watch so that the next day they could run up floors with some rest in their systems. While this idea had merit, it also had a glaring flaws which was the fact that they were just not prepared to spend a night in the dungeon. They had no food, little water left in the supply, and scarcely any other amenities to be able to sustain the expedition let alone allow them to recover some strength. They were on a time crunch, the longer they stayed immobile, the worse their condition will get.

Or two, they could blitz right up the floors in sweeping wave, annihilate all the monsters in the way, and run from those that came from behind. This was a highly disrespectful tactic and frowned upon because it will attract all sorts of monsters as they dash past. In the upper floors, doing this would result in the deaths of any poor adventurer unlucky enough to be caught in the blitz because the train of monsters that tailed the runners would overwhelm that poor fellow. Normally this idea would be vetoed without consideration, but with the current situation and the increasing tension and worry, no one was selfless enough to warrant much care for morality at this point. The saving grace of this idea is the fact that at such a deep level, there is almost no possibility that adventurers would be around. Nevertheless, the plan was so full of holes that it resembled Swiss cheese. Any self-respecting tactician or strategist would whack you in the head and label you as a dumbass for even proposing it.

"Very well, let us decide upon a course of action," a small blond stated with a slight stress in his voice to emphasize how important a quick decision must be made.

"I think we should rest for the night. Those who agree should come here," someone immediately yelled out, but no one else deigned to speak out in the moments following.

"That idea, while it has its own merits, would leave us weakened, tired, and hungry come the next morning. I think that we have recovered enough to be able to proceed to the surface, thus we should head up NOW." A gruff voice voiced out. But this was entirely a stalemate. The group was split on the decision. Approximately half went to either side.

"Let's just compromise. I will take Aiz, Bete, and you three," he pointed at the members of the other Familia, "to scout out and deal with the boss. Those who need more rest, stay here and leave for the 37st floor after an hour has passed, when one of us or someone is sent to get you. Needless to say, there is no need to worry about the Monster Rex on the 37th. Just be sure to watch out on this floor as this is no [Safe Zone]."

Everybody just nodded their heads since the idea was sound and it would do no good for the group to split up entirely.

* * *

Only about 20 minutes had passed but a representative had already been sent back down on the camp on the 38th floor.

"Let's go. No time to waste," was all that was said by the messenger before the remainders all hurriedly packed their stuff and left. Nothing else was said, but confusion was clearly on their faces. Was it possible that the vanguard defeated the boss already? That's far too fast...

Who would have guessed that as they neared the 37st floor—a floor that the core members all had experience with—that the oppressive aura had increased tenfold from the bad feeling they got on the 38th. The remaining experienced members—the ones that were not included in the vanguard group—knew that there could've only been one reason for this and it's because a [Variant Type] of boss had spawned at the 37th instead of the normal one. "But how?" It was the question that plagued the thoughts of many. Never has any one of them actually ever experienced a [Variant Type Monster Rex] before, but they all knew from disregarded rumors, uncited books, and various obscure ancient tomes that while extremely rare, [Variant Types] were extremely powerful for the floor level. The reason for the appearance of a Variant was unexplained and remained a mystery for even the most experienced of explorers.

Back to the matter at hand, judging from the intensity of the pressure, this new variant boss had to be far stronger than normal, perhaps it was even a rarity among the Variants, they would never know. However, to not incite panic, those in the know of such a threat discreetly nodded to each other to not mention anything lest they worry the inexperienced even more. Excessive stress and paranoia would only be detrimental at this point, because they had no other choice than to face it head on and pray for the frontline's success in subduing it.

Subsequently, those select members actually all prayed that Aiz and the members of the vanguard waited for them with either good news, or a defeated boss.

Else, they were doomed to stay the night in the dungeon, which is possibly one of the most important rules not to break for reason that monsters grow stronger and more dangerous at night.

Needless to say, their expressions upon arriving at the 37th floor were vastly over-exaggerated. One could probably hear a certain grey haired werewolf's continuous outcry from the surface.

* * *

 **[Later at Rivera]**

They had finally arrived. Usually it takes around five days for a First Class team of adventurers to make it to the 50th floor and by using simple mathematics its easy for anyone to believe that it's around 10 floors per day. By that principle, at the 37th floor it should've taken up to four days, but that reasoning assumes that every level is equal in difficulty which is about as true, or untrue, as a newspaper article written by the god of tricksters herself, Loki. Basically, it's all bleeping lies. In actuality, the dungeon's difficulty increases exponentially as one goes further down, and thus the reverse is true: the dungeon basically becomes a bore for first class adventurers at the upper levels.

It was all thanks to someone or some _thing_ that defeated the Variant Monster Rex on the 37th floor that they were able to make it to the 18th floor. Not only was a path carved–or rather blown away–right through the labyrinth walls of the 37th floor, which would've required more time to figure the way out than they could afford. It seemed that the same occurred to all the floors leading up to this one: all the monsters in a direct path to the 18th floor had been terminated and all that was left to mark a trail were blades.

The party didn't know if it was a divine intervention or not, but what had happened was truly a godsend. Not taken literally of course, since the gods had descended and had forfeited their powers. Nevertheless, they were eternally grateful for whoever did them that favor.

Rumors had already started to spread by the time the party arrived at the safe zone on the 18th floor and it only served to strengthen their beliefs that something strange was happening within the dungeon.

Rumors sprouted up one after another but from what the [Loki Familia] could overhear, almost all of them concerned the same topic:

"–Did you see those swords?"

"–Some real good weapons. I wouldn't mind–"

"–Flew out of nowhere and impaled monsters. Amaz–"

"–Anyone suspicious? Who throws swords at-"

It was the talk of the town and no one had any answers to the questions, it seemed. Many adventurers could be seen traveling down one floor, to the 19th floor, just to get a glimpse at the rumored swords. It was a good thing that the [Loki Familia] almost had enough of those swords after seeing them littered everywhere for more than just a couple floors on their way up. Now they could finally rest.

In the adventurer-made town of Rivera, they decided to rest for the night after a good meal, which is what many of the members needed as they were overexerting themselves the entire way.

Time quickly passed and as the last of the adventurers in the town went to sleep after such a ruckus, so did the [Loki Familia]. Lights, one after another, were blown out and the town fell into a blissful rest, with all the inhabitants scooped up into the arms of Morpheus, dreaming as darkness overtook the land. Everyone was asleep, except for one.

He wore large brown, worn cloak that enshrouded his face with the hood pulled up. He looked tattered and battle worn but it did not fail in its purpose to keep its wearer hidden. It was only possible to make out that he had a relatively tall stature that wasn't thin, but that very brown cloak blotted out any other details. No, it was inaccurate to call it a purely brown cloak since there was the dark stains of blood splotched on it.

He walked with a slight limp, but he moved gracefully enough that it seemed to hardly inconvenience him. It was the walk of a warrior, always ready for combat and always in balance. He had just come out from patching himself up as best he could with some bandages he'd managed to obtain by trading a couple of those gem-like rocks that he had gotten on his way here.

That merchant had seemed oddly happy after that transaction.

It was about time, however, for him to head to the surface.

* * *

 **[A report given to the goddess Loki by the First Class Adventurers]**

Written with the collaboration of 3 of the First Class concerning the latest expedition.

The original plan for the newest batch of 2nd Class Adventurers was to stop at an upper floor and merely gather experience for future expeditions. It was unexpected that they would perform far better than previously seen in new any of 2nd Class adventurers. The quota for the expedition was met quickly.

It was almost no surprise that they had insisted to go deeper. Their strong will to explore should be monitored closely in the future as it can be both a strength as well as a weakness. No doubt that this latest generation will become a powerful force when they hit First Class. Their progress will be much anticipated in the future.

After much deliberation between the First Class adventurers, it was decided that with the amount of First Class force available to us at the time, it was not impossible to go deeper. A vote was held and the decision was made with 4:3 in favor of diving down deeper.

All precautionary procedures were taken beforehand, however, due to a slight misjudgment on the holding strength of a cliff edge, the expedition unexpectedly fell into an unprecedented precarious situation. A group of freshly minted, inexperienced by comparison, 2nd Class adventurers had fallen to floors that they had absolutely no business to be on.

The expedition had fallen into the White Palace and it was extremely close to breaking apart. With no supplies to last a night outside of civilization, the group had decided to divide and conquer the floors above.

The transition from the 38th floor to the 37th was different from usual. As several of the First Class, the vanguard, broke through the staircase that connected the 2 floors, the pressure generated was far more malicious than anything that could've been found at this floor. It held resemblance to something on the 55th floor or deeper. The small attack force was ready for a fight; however, those thoughts were dashed upon arrival at the 37th floor.

What lay on the Monster Rex floor, could only be described as a war-torn battlefield. Swords of all shapes, sizes, and designs had covered the surroundings. At first glance, the silvery swords shined in the White Palace and caused an almost mystical type of atmosphere. Just based on a look, it was obvious that those swords weren't mundane.

It was highly mystifying and according to an observation by one of the more talented blacksmiths from the [Hephaestus Familia] these swords' qualitative worth was on par with, if not higher, than most of the weapons wielded by members their current party. If not for the fact that they had higher priorities and were also unsure if it was a trap or not, the majority of the party would've started grabbing swords left and right. Some, in fact, attempted to, but were stopped.

It is under the assumption that the Monster Rex had been slain before Wallenstein had even arrived on the scene. Thus it is impossible to identify the species or type of the [Variant Type Rex]. Furthermore, it is unknown as to who or what caused a Variant Rex to spawn in the first place. Thus it also isn't known whether it was the Variant Rex, or what we are dubbing [Mysterious Entity], that used the blades. Though, they hoped it was the latter as that would no doubt be a very formidable force to have in the dungeons: someone who had the resources and funds to be able to toss and leave swords willy nilly.

Perhaps it was due to the attraction of the swords that they missed a very important detail, but it wasn't until a voice pointed it out that they noticed the copious amounts of blood that covered the floors and pooled in the scars marked in the ground. There were splattered stains of blood on the broken walls that spoke of the violent struggle of the battle that occurred here.

Note that the amount of blood that covered the once pristine walls of the White Palace hinted that the victims were most likely fatally wounded.

By following the trail of blood, which looked like a heavily bleeding victim being dragged by another made it, the entrance to the 36th floor corridor was found.

There was only one good revelation that could be reported at the 36th floor: the confirmation of the existence of someone who uses many swords.

The confirmation came from a small hill that served as a modest burial ground that would have gone unnoticed if not for the pressure that could be felt from the sword embedded in the mound. There is only one time an adventurer's party receives a proper burial and that is if there is at least one survivor to do the grim tedium. Considering that there is a sword at the top, it is highly likely that the [Mysterious Entity] did it.

It should be noted that no monsters dared to approach that area. We also determined that the peculiar pressure felt emitting from the sword was the cause of their wariness. While the sword would be a tremendous boon to our party at the moment, to callously pull it from the resting site of fellow adventurers would be a disrespect of the highest order.

The events following consisted of rushing through the dungeons as a group and making it to the 18th floor rest area: the small town of Rivera. There was no evidence that the [Mysterious Entity] had reached, stayed, or left the 18th floor yet, but rumors had already spread to the point that the whole town was abuzz with gossip concerning the recent events.

Though it would be prudent to gather some information from fellow adventurers in the tavern, there was a much larger need for rest and recovery after the events on the lower floors. Thus the leaders banned all sort of investigation for that night.

There was only some information that we had been able to glean before and during the interlude on the 18th. This is a compilation of all our conclusions based on the data obtained on the floors leading up to, and on, the 18th floor.

1.) The [Mysterious Entity] has extremely massive funding. So much so, that it is simply wasteful. The sheer cost of all the swords he disposed totaled to far greater than what a small Familia could possibly afford. Two conclusions can be made from this: one, he or she belongs to an extremely powerful, affluent Familia or even receives funding from multiple Familias. Or two, the Entity is close with a blacksmith with the skills and funds to produce as many swords as this, perhaps the Entity is a blacksmith himself. It might be prudent to ask Hephaestus concerning this.

2.) The wielder as well as some of the swords themselves are capable of magical affects. I.E, the [Mysterious Entity] can use magic and wields magic weapons. This is the only conclusion possible after seeing various swords. A notable one lies on the burial mound as a grave marker. There have already been several attempts to analyze the blade without stepping on the resting place of the fallen, but it was impossible for the forging methods to be seen nor could they identify any signature or marking to identify the smith that made it. Though there were the rare weapons with magical properties, it is not a serious cause of concern as most of the magical effects are not suited for combat. There is likely no chance for a weapon to be found with malicious abilities.

3.) The [Mysterious Entity] is in Orario. From a small medicine peddler on the 18th floor came a report that a suspicious character covered in a bloodied cloak left for the surface only hours prior to daylight. It is likely that this character was the [Mysterious Entity] that caused this uproar. The peddler couldn't give more information due to the cloak but the height is approximately 170 centimeters, or just about 68 inches at 5'8. After interrogating the man further, it seemed that the adventurer offered a number of high quality monster cores just for a roll of bandages and some medicinal cream. This further reinforces the notion of incredible riches, so much so that he could essentially give away monster cores like that.

Conclusion from given facts: the [Mysterious Entity] could either be an extremely powerful ally, or an entirely unwanted enemy. Various First Class adventurers and Familias are already on the search for such a figure in Orario and it is only a matter of time before he is found. It has become a race. A race to see who is able to ally themselves with him and/or his familia first as such a character is sure to be a valuable asset in the future.

End of report.

Events witnessed and confirmed by Aiz Wallenstein, Finn Deimne, and Bete Loga.

* * *

 _ **A/N**_

 _._

 _ **Question Corner:**_

 _You may be wondering just when did Shirou first appear in my story? Whats the timeline right now?_

 _ **2 weeks prior** to start of canon. The light novel said that Bell only arrived in Orario 2 weeks ahead, so I made Shirou appear at the same time. Honestly, this story **WILL diverge from canon.** Nothing I can do about that as the interactions between characters will be different. Also this is post-war Shirou with a twist of my own._

 _But there will be some events that show up from canon as those are beyond what a change in just one character could change likeCOUGH Sorry. No spoilers._

 _._

 _By the way, I only have knowledge of danmachi from 4 volumes of lightnovel and the anime. As well as the wiki, but I'll only use that for general stuff. By the way, I watched the anime first and I thought that Bell was such an innocent, naive boy since the anime never voiced any of his "thoughts" but then I read the light novel and I was like "what the..." Bell's intentions at the very beginning of the book aren't exactly pure LOL. Did it surprise anyone else besides me? I still like Bell overall, though :DD_

 _._

 _Originally, I was going to write at least 25k words before releasing the prologue, but I just wanted to know the feedback for what I have so far. ^_^_

 _Please also include any questions or comments that you may have in the reviews. I may or may not answer those. :)))_

 _I'll post chapter 1 when I finally reach 25k words total.(So including this 4.5k prologue.)_


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